“Cooking food and reading tarot have much more in common than one might think. They both require use of your intuition and instincts. They require you to trust yourself.”

Sasha Graham, the Tarot Diva

In The Kitchen Tarot chapter of Tarot Diva, reader Sasha Graham matches the first ten Major Arcana cards — the personality archetypes — with our personalities in the kitchen.

Are we a topsy-turvy mess like The Fool, all brave with our eating choices and fearless when attempting a new dish? Are fresh herbs and seasonal organic eating the norm, like a High Priestess (and the female half of your radio team, evidently)? Or is the gleaming kitchen of The Emperor, all chrome and by-the-book cooking, more your style? It’s a fun way to bring the cards into our kitchens and more insight about ourselves into our food, too. And the recipes are both achievable for a timid home cook, and satisfyingly delicious.

So in celebration of Sasha joining us on the show today, we’re sharing her The Lovers’ French Onion Soup. Rich and warm and inviting, we can’t think of anything better for this chilly time of year, when we’re getting ready to bunker down and cozy up with our special someones. More recipes can be found in the book, as well through videos at Sasha’s Magic Kitchen, on her website.

Are You The Lovers?

The Lovers’ Kitchen

Your kitchen awaits, a hidden chamber of delights. A naked chicken lies on the counter. Plucked, skin pulled taut, legs tied back, its dark cavity waits to be filled. Fruit bursts with ripeness while heady aromas tickle the nose. Softly folded linen napkins wait for you to spread them with your fingers and drape them across your lap. Al Green pines away softly in the background. Plush furniture decorates the room.

The Lovers’ Cooking Style

An expert on pairing and balancing flavors, you know spicy couples with sweet and smoky entwined with creamy. You layer flavor upon texture upon flavor. You’ll use food as a weapon when having your way with a friend or lover. Marketing and shopping is your sensual foreplay to the main act of cooking. You flirt your way to the best cut of meat from the butcher; you entice the cheese monger to offer the finest, ripest hunks of cheese; and the wine merchant has you swimming in the loveliest wines–dry, sweet, and robust. Desserts leave sweet satisfaction on your guests’ lips and have them returning for more.

The Lovers’ Eating Habits

A slave to your senses, you’ll sit and enjoy a meal for hours upon hours. Savoring the complexity and nuances of food brings you a sense of heightened pleasure. The soft fuzz of a peach, the sweet burst of a cherry, and smooth dark chocolate bring you to complete ecstasy. Nothing gets your engines going like the perfect meal. Even alone, you’ll treat yourself to beautifully prepared food because you understand that three meals a day offer more than sustenance: they offer escape into the sensual arts.

When to Invoke the Lovers’ Energy:

• Preparing a romantic meal
• Shopping for food
• Redecorating the kitchen

The Lovers French Onion Soup

The lovers card represents desire, choice, and intimacy. Nothing can be more intimate than whispering to that special someone over a crock of this French soup while sharing a bottle of Cotes du Rhone.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 1/2 pounds onions, peeled and thinly sliced (about 5 cups)
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme sprigs or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
• 5 cups hot chicken stock
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper, or more to taste
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 3 or 4 slices of baguette, about 1/4-inch, sliced on diagonal
• 2 to 2 1/2 ounces Gruyere or Emmentaler cheese, grated (about 3/4 cup)

Set a heavy-bottomed 4-quart saucepan over medium-low heat and add the oil and butter. When the butter has melted, add the onions, thyme, and salt, and mix together thoroughly. Cover the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. When the onions are quite tender, uncover and raise heat slightly. Cook another 20 to 25 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are dark brown and have caramelized in the pan. (Lower heat if onions are in danger of burning.)

Stir in hot stock, scraping any crystallized juices from the bottom of the pan, and bring soup to a bowl. Taste and adjust the seasonings, adding the wine and additional salt and black pepper to taste. (The amount of salt will vary depending on the broth.) Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Toast baguettes either in toaster or on cookie sheet in oven (depending on how much soup you are making.)

When the soup is ready, arrange individual crocks on a baking sheet. Put the croutons, whole or broken into large pieces, into the bottom of each crock, and sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of cheese on top. Ladle in a cup or more of soup to fill the crock to the inner rim. Heap a large mound of grated cheese all over the surface of the soup, using the rest of the cheese for each crock.

Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the cheese is dark golden brown and has formed a crust over the soup. Move the hot crocks carefully onto individual plates and serve.

Recipe reprinted from Tarot Diva courtesy of Sasha Graham and Llewellyn Publications.